Have you ever had a health concern and spent hours googling it to make a self diagnosis? Before you know it, your ingrown hair has become the symptom of a dangerous flesh eating bacteria.
First Opinion App
Panic no more. There’s an app for this: First Opinion. Aimed primarily at parents, the app connects you with a doctor over text message. All the doctors are also mothers, so you can ask questions about things like pregnancy, child development, illness, injury, lactation, nutrition and sleep training.
To avoid legal issues, the app is not intended as a way to diagnose illness, but instead to help you with simple questions to give you peace of mind.
Your first interaction is free, and after that you will be charged $9 a month for unlimited messaging with the doctor you are matched up with. It’s also anonymous, so you can ask anything you like without needing to upload or access medical records. This alone should ensure a steady stream of income from the hypochondriacs among us.
There are lots of websites dedicated to answering health concerns, or attempts to match you over video chat with a doctor, but this is the first mobile app to connect you with one doctor, on a more personal, intimate level, asynchronously. It’s a good model for ensuring users stick around. I know that once I’ve established a relationship with a doctor, I’m going to be less likely to leave the app and seek answers elsewhere.
It’s still early days: the San Francisco based startup has just raised $1.2 million from Greylock, Yuri Milner, Felicis Ventures, 500 Startups and more, but they have great reviews on the app store.
Download First Opinion and get answers to your health concerns here.
